There is a lot of information on WK2jeeps that is useful, some wiring diagrams, manuals, spec sheets, TSBs ..... Everyone should have the site bookmarked for easy reference. Allpar.com can also contains good info.

The service manual CD is now available at techauthority.com . It is browser based, unlike the older PDF versions and runs best on a Windoze XP machine and Internet Exploder 8. Anything else is an adventure due to obsolete code and plug ins. CD does not include wiring diagrams in section 8W.

Well, It has been a few weeks since I did the install. Been a crazy summer here at work, but I finally have time to put together all the pictures from the preparation, to the install. A BIG shout out to Jackal01. He was willing to provide a shady spot to do the install and several critical tools needed for the install. I of course provided the Jeep and the ice chest of Beer.
I know he enjoyed cutting up my Jeep and I look forward to helping him install his winch, roof rails, skid plate, etc, etc, etc... as his list grows...lol

There will be numerous pictures posted as I like to take a bunch. It lets me look back at a picture later that day so I know what all the parts look like and how I can brainstorm the best way to situate them under the hood.

Here are some pictures of the parts as they came in.
All of mine were shipped UPS, and RRO even 3-day'd the winch mount so I could have it in time. Those guys are awesome!

Winch Box exploded in my spare bedroom...I clocked the motor while it was in here because it was easier to do than once it was in the driveway...

The facia and chrome overlay from the grill removed
(the easiest way to get the push-pins off from the side molding and fender wells is to just cut them with an exacto-knife. Save the ones from underneath as they go easily back into place unless you install the skid plate)

There is plenty of room around and underneath the mount for additional accessories, like onboard air that you thought you couldn't have because of the lack of clearance for you Warn 9xi.....pun intended

Standard 4 gauge battery cable I got from the auto parts store along with a box of heat shrink and wire looming. I cut the 3 cables at 8 feet, but 7 feet looks like it is the perfect size to go from the location next to the terminal, all the way down to the winch. I used the black ground cable that came with the winch, and one of the short red cables. The small black ground from the solenoid reached perfectly over to the negative post by routing it under the plastic wall with the other loomed cables. ( Yellow arrow in picture #8 in this post )

After Looming and taping all the wires together it was too big to fit under the wall in the factory wiring pass-through holes, so we cut an opening in the wall at the top. Once re-installed, the wall weather-stripping covers the top of the hole and it looks very clean.

We found a good place to run the wires behind the top of the coolant reservoir and around the bottom of it, in between the body frame where the mount bolts, away from the radiator and other heat/moving parts.

Winch bolted and test-fit wiring to get correct length. (make sure you have the mount and all its bolts in and fastened before you begin mounting the winch, if a few of the bolts are off, you will have to take it out again)

TEST TEST TEST TEST YOUR WINCH!!!!!!!! make sure it all works before you zip-tie and spray and bolt it down later on. DO NOT LEAVE IT BOLTED IN NOW. (we removed this one 3 or 4 times due to our brains being tired...this led to Lunch)

Remove the winch after testing so you can place the fascia back on and mark the holes. A dremil is perfect for this job, make sure you have a plunging bit, not just a cut wheel. The wheel works, but the bit would be easier and have less cleanup.

Another reason we had to un-mount the winch was because the clutch lever was too high on the Smitty 8k. Follow the instructions in the manual and rotate it toward the radiator. It does not hit, and it makes it perfect for releasing and engaging the clutch with an allen wrench. (no holes in your grille!!)

Once you get most everything re-installed for a final time, you are going to be wandering how in the heck and I suppose to get these bolts in here????
Well, the wrench fits through the hole and with some creative tape skillz, you can hold the nuts up while you thread in the bolts.

Finished product, unless you are required to have a front license plate. The you get to remove the fairlead, and re-attach the bolts with the plate mount.
I got the one from RRO. Works fantastic. it even survives the car-wash.

Instead if the two ugly plastic wing nuts, I went by Hoe Depot and got some stainless allen head bolts. They are 5/16 - 18 thread, and I got them 1" long I believe, They look better and the sides of the heads are textured in case you only have a pair of pliers, you can still get them off without too much damage. ( I have mine on there incredibly tight to prevent anyone from having any ideas)

To finalize the wiring I needed a place for the Plug to go....
So I thought why not put it on the driver's side in the same place as the solenoid. There is a nice hole in the weather stripping all along the bottom of the windshield, and a convenient crease in the A-pillar strip to allow you to run the cord behind the hood hinge and out the back of the hood to wherever you need to go. (the controller on the smitty has 12 ft of cable)

Keep everything you take off, and bring your bucket from the shop with spare nuts and bolts from past Jeep projects. A few I had in the top of my tool box worked better than some of them in the kit. I also used one or two for the little splash guards, to hold them up.

The bolts on the hood latch spreader bars, the two vertical bars, are the same size, but have different size heads. Also, there are a couple really small lock-nuts that go on the bottom two holes for these...

The plastic from the bumper melts while cutting it and slings it in every direction so be careful and wear glasses.

Just installed a pair of JW Speaker LED fogs from rebeloffroad.com. These will replace the WK2 2011~2013 OEM incandescent fogs and put out way more light than the OEM parts. 750 raw Lumens@2.15a 12volts
Real nice foglamp upgrade! Razor sharp horizontal cutoff & loads of lumens to light the foreground! Check 'em out!

The install was relatively easy.....First if you have Quadra Lift, lift your jeep up to Off Road 2 for maximum height and lock it in position. Remove the fronts wheels for clearance to work. You need to partially remove the front fender liners just behind the fogs. To do this just remove the lower front fender liner 10mm bolt and lower front plastic retainer (twist 1/2 turn, pull out) on each side just to the rear of the OEM fogs.

Next hook and pull the lower front part of the fender liners back & out of the way w/a bungee cord giving you access to the rear of the OEM fogs. Now looking up to where the fogs mount, remove the three 7mm OEM hex screws, unclip the OEM electrical connector, and pull the OEM fog lights out. On the passenger side if you have quadra lift the OEM compressor is somewhat in the way so you can't actually see the inboard hex screw and will have to remove it by feel. I used a 1/4" flex head rachet w/a 7mm deep socket to remove the OEM hex screws. Mounting the JW speaker fogs is pretty simple, they fall into place just like the OEM fogs with the same mounting lug alignment and screw holes.... Bolt right up!

I made my own plug and play harness adaptors as the JW Speaker 6145 fogs only come w/9005 (H10) wire plugs. You'll need to make two small adaptor harness' to fit the OEM harness which connects to the OEM 2504 bulb. You need a 5202 type plug for this type bulb. I ordered what I needed from; http://autolumination.com/headlights.htm to custom make the 6" adaptor harness'.

These guys will sell you the exact adaptor harness you need if you don't/can't solder yourself;

After they were mounted I had to adjust both JW Speaker fogs upward as they were aimed to low out of the box. After remounting my front tires, & lowering to normal ride height, I left the lower front fender liner 10mm bolts and plastic retainers off so I could reached up behind the liners, in front of the tires, to adjust the fogs with a phillips screwdriver. A couple of turns clockwise brought them up to illuminate the foreground nicely!

I purchased my JW Speaker 6145 fogs from RebelOffroad.com. They had the best price I could find on the web. They had the black ones in stock and shipped them cross country in 2 days. I paid $295.00 w/shipping and tax included!

Has anyone with heated leather attempted to install the 'cooled seats' option? Does anyone even know if this is possible to install or if it must come standard?

I'm not entirely sure, but I'd assume that the ventilated seats require additional hardware. The wiring is probably already in tact, but is assume there is probably some additional ducting required for seat ventilation.

.... maybe just rig up some cheap 120mm PC cooling fans to blow up inside the seat

I'm not entirely sure, but I'd assume that the ventilated seats require additional hardware. The wiring is probably already in tact, but is assume there is probably some additional ducting required for seat ventilation.

.... maybe just rig up some cheap 120mm PC cooling fans to blow up inside the seat

I subsequently learned the answer to my own question: Cooled seats required perforated leather. I don't have perforated leather. I don't think you can get perforated leather without cooled seats, so unless you are willing to replace the seats then you are out of luck. Thanks for the input!

In the past I've really benefited from folks that have posted their instructions and feedback on installing items so I wanted to take the time to pay it forward so I documented my recent installation of the Mopar Rock Rails on my new 2014 Grand Cherokee Overland 4x4. I took my GC offroad at a nearby offroad park here in Texas and it performed great till I went over a little bit too high rock and rubbed the bottom edge sill under the passenger side door. So I decided to add some sliders to protect the car.

I searched around for options and read the threads online here and found that the Mopar Rock Rails were well reviewed. I'm glad I purchased them and they look great on the car.

The next decision was do I try and install them myself or do I take it to the dealer and have them do it. After reading some other posts about how the dealers didn't have experience or missed installing the cut off sill plate I decided to go at it myself.

I would say that I'm good at working on things in general and a handy man kind of person. If it has instructions and doesn't require welding or special tools that cost a lot to own, I'm open to trying it myself.

I started in the morning around 9:00am and finished that evening around 6:00pm with about 1-hr for lunch. So it wasn't too bad for someone doing it all by myself. I didn't have any help installing these. Should you be so lucky it would most likely cut this to about 1/3 the time.

The instructions are very simple to follow and the reference to checking the hardware prior to starting by screwing on the nuts of all the bolts that someone else recommended in another thread is very wise. It was very good to make sure that they all worked before putting them in the slots and finding that the nuts don't work. It would be a pain to get them out since they sit inside the channel and would have to use a magnet to pull them out.

Some helpful notes on the installation:

The step having to use J hook tool to take off lower trim, not needed. Just remove heads of the plastic rivets and pull out. It will come right off, at least mine did on both sides.

Use caution when using the chisel at the front of the sill cover since they use that part to cover the front edge of the rails in the wheel well.

Since they don't have you use the back support piece, the one that has you bend out of the way, I took the bolt and the metal clamp nut and moved to the front so that I can bolt the sill piece on, see video for details.

Here's a short video as well showing the final product and pointing out some things learned:

Here's a link to my PhotoBucket photo album if you want to see full sized photos in a slideshowPhotoBucket Slideshow

Step 1. Remove the factory sill cover by using a hammer and chisel to cut off the heads of the plastic rivets, be careful in the front fender well to not mar the plastic since you need to use this part. Later in the instructions they have you cut it off the sill piece and trim to fit and reuse just that small piece in the wheel well.

Use Caution on these Rivets in the Front Wheel Well - You use this piece later:

Step 2 Pull the Sill Cover away from the vehicle. They state to use special J-Hook Scribe and putty knife. No need, just pull out. They came right out.

You can see here that the clips are very flimsy and come out easily:

Pictures of sill guard removed. The holes shown with the doors open are where the bolts go in and you can see some with the foam that needs to be removed.

Step 3 - Remove the rubber grommets from bottom of sill

Step 4 - Remove the Foam from the sill at Front and Rear. This takes a bit of time and I may have removed more than needed, but I didn't want to take the chance of having the bolt fall in the sill and have to fish it out. So I removed enough to easily get the bolts in there.

To Remove the foam I used the recommended screwdriver but I found a nice use for the J-hook scribe since I didn't need it for the trim. It's nice for taking out the foam and pulling the pieces out the small hole.

Step 5 - Install the Bolts into the Rectangular holes and 1 round hole in the middle. Note that you 2 bolts that don't have the extra washer size on them. They go into the round hole in the middle of the car. You use the special tool that's included with the kit to push the bolt onto the hex wrench that's welded to the flexible metal arm. They hold on nicely and I was fortunate enough to not loose any of them.

I would use the tool to locate the bolt into the hole and then I had a nice long screwdriver that was thin enough to slide into the hole from the outside and I could pinch the bolt into place allowing me to push on the quick nut that holds the bolt in place while you install the bars.

They suggest using a 13mm deep well socket to push the quick nut onto the bolt. I tried that and it worked well. I could get the nut and bolt on tight allowing for the best amount of threads and to keep it tight when putting the bars on.

Very important to push the quick nut all the way on so that you get as much of the small bolt exposed since when putting the bars on, you have very little to work with. In fact the threads are so short, on several of them I had to start the nuts in the reverse mode at the step for installing the bars on the car.

Step 6 - Follow the easy instructions to install the 3 bolts under the sill in the correct holes that you took the grommets out and removed the foam from. Important note is that there are 2 sizes of these. Use the 2 longer ones towards the front and the shorter one for the rear. Sorry missed taking a pic of these.

Step 7 - Install the Rock Rail - I used the recommended jack stands to hold the bar in place and later used a floor jack to adjust as needed. I worked on the bolts above first putting them all on with the nuts lightly and then went to the next step of installing the bolts and the metal bar on the inside edge.

Step 8 - Inside Edge bar installation - They include a thin metal bar that you install along the inside of the vehicle which you connect to the rock rails. They have nuts welded in place that you connect to. In the photo you'll see a black support bar bolted to the car. It was in the way for me so I unbolted and pulled it down just a little so that I could install the one bolt at the end. No need to take it completely off, just unbolt the two bolts and pull while installing. Note that there is a difference on the bars as to how you install them. The hole patterns have to be in the right orientation and the holes are closer to the edge on one side along the bar, that goes on top. Important because if it's not right, the holes won't line up with the sill or the rock rails.

When installing these bolts and the metal bar, I had to use the floor jack to push the rock rail up to align the holes. I would install 1 or 2 if I was lucky and then move the jack down the bar to the next set of holes.

Also I used the recommended locktite during this process since I torqued them down per the recommended settings so I didn't have to mess with them. They mention that on the passenger side you have to remove the wire harness casing to get access to the holes. Not a big deal at all, just remove a few nuts and it pulls down and away enough for you to easily access the holes and then when your done with that side, just reattach the assembly.

Tighten down everything and use locktite as prescribed.

Step 9 is to fabricate the end piece for the front wheel well. I cut off the end to make it easier to work with and then placed it on the car and kept trimming it to finally make it fit. I used the scribe to mark the line to cut it. I used a dremmel tool to cust the plastic. Makes it easy and fast. They do provide a template to cut it out, but I just used the vehicle and cut to fit.

Here's the piece installed with the bolt as noted above at the beginning. I still need to install the rivets provided, but I didn't have the right size rivet gun so off to Advanced Auto Parts to borrow one.

decided to install my MOPAR skid plates on my 2011 Overland this weekend. Here are some notes from the experience.

1) The job was easier than I anticipated. If your skeptical, I'd say go for it. It takes only basic hand tools (13mm, 15mm, 16mm sockets), a floor jack, and ramps.

2) Pulling the rear wheels of the truck on ramps in ORI (QuadraLift) gave ample room to get the fuel tank skid plates in place

3) A floor jack and second set of hands is a recommendation for the fuel tank skids. After removing the 3 bolts holding each tank, place the skid plate on a floor jack. Have one person jack it up while the other guides it into place and re-installs the 3 bolts.

4) The skid plates provide decent protection, but there are some weaknesses:

- I don't understand why MOPAR would design a 5-piece skid plate system and not have a steep plate for the transmission. The plastic one isn't going to do crap if it takes a direct hit

-Of the 5 piece set, I think the transfer case skid plate is a weak link. In the rear of the passenger side, it's not mounted to anything solid (just kind of hangs over in open space). If you took a hit in that corner, it would fold right into the transfer case. Again the engineering here does't make enough sense. If it was extended just a ` little bit, it could be fastened to an open bolt hole on the passenger side along the body.

Update Nov 25:

Okay, I FINALLY got both the passenger and drivers said rock rails installed. I didn't take any pictures; just do a search for Rock Rails on this forum and you'll find a great write-up (with pictures). READ THOROUGHLY BEFORE ATTEMPTING and your install will go much easier.

Here are some additional tips:

1) Follow the instructions initially, however when it actually comes time to install the rails (after all the hardware has been installed) IGNORE the instructions.

(TIP: The instructions tell you to bend a rear bracket upward and out of the way in the 2nd or 3rd step. This bracket is sturdier than it looks. I used a bottle jack to bend it out of the way...worked perfectly)

The instructions will tell you to loosely install the 3 nuts and 10 or so small bolts along the pinch weld first. DO NOT DO THIS. Use a jack to raise the rail into place and only install the 3 nuts onto the flag bolts (just enough to hold the rail in place). Next move your jack to the tubular portion of the rails and jack into place. The top holes in the rail should "pop" into place over the small bolts previously installed along the door sill.

(TIP: Make sure when you install the small bolts along the door sill that you get the speed nut/retainer thing all the way on. You won't have a lot of threads to get the nut on, so this is vitally important.)

I recommend tightening the bolts hand tight with a nut driver at this point.

2) After you have threaded all the nuts along the door sill, now it's time to get the small bolts and stiffener installed along the pinch weld. I used a bottle jack underneath each bolt location to raise the rock rail into place so the hole aligned with the hole in the pinch weld and stiffener.

(TIP: Before installing the Rock Rail in the above step, take a dremel or drill bit to widen the holes in the pinch weld just a bit. (The holes were all a smidge out off center and this would have made alignment a LOT easier)

Install each nut about 1/2- 3/4 of the way, leaving some threads for loctite application later on.

3) At this point you should have all your hardware installed loosely (except for the top nuts which should be hand torqued with a nut driver). Now we need to get some loctite installed. Remove one nut (along the door sill) at a time, install some loctite and replace the nut with a nut driver (as tight as you can with the nut driver) Now climb under the vehicle and install a dab of loctite on the remaining threads of the small bolts along the pinch weld. Torque all of the bolts along the weld to the specs in the instructions...and maybe a little more for good measure :-). Next torque all the nuts along the door sill. Last torque the three flag bolt nuts to specs.

Aside for some aesthetic work on the front end of the rock rail in the wheel well area, YOU'RE DONE!

I made a DIY mount today after seeing the nGroove CD slot magnet mount. It turned out pretty good with parts I had available, I'd like to color match the felt or the tie plate with flat spray paint if I can find one close enough. There's a strip of metal between the back of the phone and the case that the magnet holds on too. There are some videos on youtube of different versions so I thought I'd try this one for my Jeep